When people ask me, "How did your children get into schools like Oxford, Yale, Cambridge? I have to say, "By a miracle of God."

You see, it was never my goal for them to get into the best universities. It was my goal to fill their soul with great stories that were patterns of the Greatest Stories found in scripture. I wanted them to understand goodness, heroism, truth, family values, love, faith by filling their minds and imaginations with stories both from the Bible and from the best writers so that they would better understand God and how to become a part of His story.

As Tolkien says, all great stories reflect a truth from the megastory of scripture--Christ's story from Genesis to Revelation. And a consequence of reading with them, talking with them, discussing ideas, heroes, choices, lessons taught, people living a great story, also happened, as a consequence, to provide them with strong minds, spiritually fit hearts and strong wills to follow hard after God.

I am sooooo excited today to present to you our new website, Storyformed. Sarah, my sweet oldest child, started it several years ago. But when she started her studies at Oxford, it became too much to keep up. So wonderful kindred spirits, Holly and Jaime, Sarah and I will attempt to inspire you in this place. it is a beautiful site with lots of book recommendations, reviews, and posts to inspire you. We will be developing the podcast even more and having lots of ways to inspire you. Hope you will take time to peruse it and be inspired. Enjoy!

A note from new Storyformed Director, Holly Packiam...

'Stories are verbal acts of hospitality.'-- Eugene Peterson

Stories have a way of disarming you, of welcoming you into a new world. Jesus told stories to awaken people's imagination to what the Kingdom of God is like, and to help them take their place in it. We believe that stories have the power to help you discover meaning and morality, to develop character as you become character in the Great Drama of God's work in His world.

The heart of Storyformed is to give you ideas for how to put the best books into the hands of your children. We’re here to celebrate the soul-forming power of imagination, story, and beauty in the life of your child. Our hope is that the books and ideas we write and talk about will help you in the process of forming your children to love what is good, beautiful, and true.

On the site, you’ll find encouraging articles, book recommendations, podcasts, book lists, essays, recommended sites and resources, a Storyformed bookstore, and a library. We’ll be regularly writing about imagination, artists, nature, literary travels (if any come our way) and other adventures that come about between the covers of a book.

Please join us in the Storyformed community as we journey together to cultivate Storyformed homes. We would love for you to connect with us here or on our Storyformed Facebook page. We love hearing your thoughts and answering any questions.

Here are some thoughts from the Storyformed founder, my sweet Sarah Clarkson...

It's no secret that we like stories around here, so let me tell you one to begin.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Sarah who loved good books and wanted the rest of the world to know why they should too. Being an idealistic girl and the child of idealistic parents, she wrote a book about it (Caught Up in a Story) and started a website where people could come to delight and discover stories galore. But, then, being also adventurous and led by all the great books she'd read into the attempting of her dreams, she ended up in Oxford, city of her writerly heroes, and before she knew it she was a student of theology. With a gazillion papers due all the time. And then, on top of all that, she got married. And somewhere along the way the Storyformed project got drastically on hold, much to her dismay......

CLICK HERE to read the rest of Sarah Clarkson's introductory post and to listen to a BRAND NEW Storyformed podcast on story as a form of discipleship!

And enter our giveaway for sharing our new site with your friends. So excited.

For all of you who share our new site on facebook or twitter, follow Storyformed.com on Facebook or share with your friends in any way, leave a comment on storyformed.com blog and you will be entered to a giveaway where we will pick 3 winners to receive any two books of ours that you choose.